ECOPTIC ORTHODOX PATRIARCHATECALMNESSBYH.H. POPE SHENOUDA III
2Title
: Calmness.Author
: H. H. Pope Shenouda Ill.Translated by
: Glynis YounanPress
: Dar El Tebaa El Kawmia.Edition
: June 1989 - 1st edition.Public Library deposit No : 5092/1989.Revised
: COEPA - 1997
3H.H. Pope Shenouda III, 117th Pope ofAlexandria and the See of St. Mark
45CONTENTSForwardCHAPTER 1: The Beauty of Calmness and its Sublimity
The history of calmnessThe elements of calmnessTrue calmnessVirtues connected with tranquillityThe benefit of calmnessThe disadvantages of lacking calmnessExamples of calmnessCHAPTER 2: Types of Calmness
Calmness of temperamentCalmness of the nervesStillness of the tongueInner tranquillity-calmness of the heart and thoughtsSerenity of the featuresStillness of the body and the sensesCalm behaviour and problem solvingCHAPTER 3: Causes of RestlessnessCauses from within
TemperamentThe way of thinking
6Exhausted nervesFear and confusionDesires or lustsAnger and nervousnessA liking for causing a noisy disturbanceExternal Causes
a. Against the senses Homes Machines Sounds, lights and coloursb. Against the calmness of the spiritc. Against the calmness of the soulCHAPTER 4: How We Can Obtain Calmness
Love of calmnessThe calmness of natureTranquillity of the heartDon't be easily provokedFaithLiving with calm peopleJoy and cheerfulnessHumility and gentlenessTraining in calmness
7In the name of the Father and of the Sonand of the Holy Spirit, One God. Amen.Forward
This book is the result of four lectures, two of which I gave atthe Cathedral in Cairo along with two others which 1 gave atthe Monastery of Anba Bishoy in Wadi Natrun on 27th Augustand 3rd September, 1983.
All four lectures are available as tape recordings, which you canobtain from the tape libraries at the Monastery of Anba Reweisand from various churches.
This book is about calmness, and is part of a larger spiritualcompilation, 'Landmarks of the Spiritual Way', which we hopewill be published shortly, if God wills.Pope Shenouda III
8This noisy, clamorous period in which mankind lives on theearth cannot be compared in any way with the peace which hasexisted since eternity and which will last forever .It is but a troubled drop in the ocean of that endless peace.
E E E
Maybe the angels are looking at our world in astonishment andperhaps they are saying:What is all uproar on this planet?!And why do the people live in such a tumult?!When will they calm down?It is certain that they will not calm down unless they reach us,because calmness is the way of life in heaven.
E E E
9CHAPTER IThe Beauty of Calmness and its SublimityThe History of CalmnessThe Elements of CalmnessTrue CalmnessVirtues Connected With TranquillityThe Benefit of CalmnessThe Disadvantages of Lacking CalmnessExamples of Calmness
10The History of Calmness
Peace is the original state of this universe. It was also theoriginal state before the world was created. Since the beginningof time, God alone has been in perfect peace. Millions of yearshave passed or millions of millions of years, more than thateven; in fact before time existed and before its dimensions wereknown, the original state was peace.
God began to work in peace and His first work was theCreation. In perfect peace God created everything... "ThenGod said, "Let there be light"; and there was light. And Godsaw the light, that it was good;" (Gen. 1:3-4).
"Then God said, 'Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb thatyields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to itskind, '; and it was so. ... And God saw that it was." (Gen. 1:11-12). Thus each stage of the Creation was accomplished inpeace. God created the world and the world lived in peace. Asan example of that there are the heavenly bodies moving in thecelestial sphere, with total precision and order, in total peace,without any confusion; day followed by night, night followed byday, without noise and without struggle.
So when did the world begin to lose its peace?
That was after God formed creatures with a mind andpossessing free will.
11These creatures who were endowed with intelligence, spent aperiod of calm in which no one quarrelled and no one arguedwith anyone else, no one raised any objections and no onedisagreed or rebelled. There was no one who provoked aproblem or disturbance in any form.
Then there was the first loss of peace, for which Satan was toblame.
Satan lost the peace of his heart from within, when the conceptof pride entered him. (Is. 14:13-14). A desire to be like Godentered his heart, and this desire rendered his whole hearttroubled thus he lost his calmness. Not content with that,though, he in fact led a rebellion in heaven and brought downwith him angels of various ranks. A result of the free will whichhe had misused.
Satan and his angels were banished from heaven and heavenbecame peaceful.
As far as human beings were concerned, Adam lived first of allin peace, while he was in the Garden of Eden. Even the wildbeasts lived with him in peace, there was no enmity or strifebetween them. They did not kill him as their prey or attack himand he did not hunt or pursue them. He did not fear them, butrather a bond of harmony and peaceful coexistence unitedthem. The same situation occurred with the wild beasts andcreatures which were with our father Noah in the Ark.
Predatory animals were not predatory in Adam's time. Huntingfor prey had not yet entered the world since the world still
12retained its peace. The wild creatures at that time used to eatgrass (Gen.. 1: 29), they did not hunt down animals that wereweaker than themselves or prey upon a creature of a differentspecies such as Adam. There was not that 'wildness' in themwhich was to earn them the name of wild beasts. They werepeaceful, and so was man.
The amazing thing is that man lost his peace while he was still inthe Garden of Eden, which happened after he sinned.
When he sinned he was afraid, and he hid behind the trees.When he sinned he felt ashamed of his nakedness and sewed figleaves together to cover himself. And God banished Adam andEve from Paradise.
Then there was the sin of Cain when he lost the peace of hisheart because of his envy of his brother Abel. His inner feelingsdeveloped to the point that he, "rose up against Abel hisbrother and killed him." (Gen.. 4:8).
When Cain killed his brother he lost his peacefulness forever,and he lived as a restless wanderer and a fugitive on earth,afraid of God and of people. (Gen. 4:12-14). The psychologicaldisorders of fear, anxiety and confusion began to disturb himdeeply. He was the first to exhibit these disorders and the onewho introduced them into human nature. Cain's fear of Godwas surpassed by his fear of people, and his bitter cry was: "Mypunishment is greater than I can bear! ... anyone who finds mewill kill me"(Gen.4:13-14).
13Cain's killing of Abel was the introduction to the wars whichwere to sweep over the earth later, and which caused the worldto lose its peacefulness.
Lamech, one of the descendants of Cain, was also a murderer.And having confessed this to his two wives, he said: "If Cainshall be avenged sevenfold, Then Lamech seventy-sevenfold."(Gen.4:24)
This is how vengeance was introduced to the earth and theworld was filled with evil and lost its peace. Tyrants andoppressors populated the earth and God drowned the ragingworld with the Flood. And after the Flood, there was Nimrodwho "he began to be a mighty one on the earth." (Gen.10:8).
After the Tower of Babel, the peoples on earth becamedispersed and struggles broke out between the nations.(Gen.11:9). Human nature became corrupt and lost its peace,which was encouraged by the rivalry and contention betweenpeople. Eventually, on account of the quarrelling of theshepherds for grazing land, we hear in connection with tworighteous men, Abram and Lot that, "Now the land was not ableto support them, that they might dwell together." (Gen. 13:6).
It is a tragic story, in which man was changed from the depthsof peacefulness to restlessness.
Therefore what is calmness? What are its elements? What areits effects? What are the virtues that are linked with calmnessand which are lost with its loss? How can man obtain peace
14and remain in it? These and other things are what we wish todeal with in this little book.The Elements of Calmness
Calmness has to involve the human being's whole life: inwardlyand outwardly; what is apparent and what is hidden. Thus itmust include:1.Inner calmness: which is made up of tranquillity of the
mind, serenity of the heart and calmness of the thoughts.2.Calmness of the body: which consists of the stillness of
the senses and calmness of movement.3.Calmness of the nerves: which consists of the serenity
of the features and the spirit of
cheerfulness.4.Calmness of speech: which also includes calmness of
the voice.5.Calmness of behaviour: which consists of a serenity in
practical matters of life and in private
behaviour, and a
calm approach to solving any problem which the individualmight meet.
There are other things which are connected to all these kinds ofcalmness, which are:
15a.
Peace of nature, a peaceful environment and quiet place
in which to live.b.
Virtues associated with calmness
c.
Nature of calmness: is it true peace or just a superficial
or temporary calm, or the calmness of
inexperience?
d.
Practical examples of true calmness.True Calmness
1.
We cannot judge whether a person is calm or not until
his calmness has been tested.
A person may appear calm, because the external conditionswhich surround him are calm. No problem or provocation hasyet occurred to put his calmness to the test. Though if youclash with him he will probably show his real self, and showwhether he is calm or not.
It is only when one person clashes with another over a matter ofopinion or behaviour, or when insult or injury befalls him or heis faced with hurtful words that, according to how he behaves,he can be judged as to his calmness.
It is the same situation if he falls into a problem or intoadversity, or becomes ill or faces some difficulty. All of thesecould be a test for his disposition and his nerves. How does hebehave, how does he react? Does he lose his calmness, or doeshe endure and solve the problem calmly?
16This is the first test of true calmness. Any person can be calmwhen circumstances are calm.
2.
The second test, however, is how long the calmness
lasts. Real calmness is a continuous tranquillity, something likea characteristic. It is not to be calm for a period of time afterwhich a person loses that calm and changes its way of holdingout in the face of problems.
True calmness is not just training for endurance for a specificperiod of time. It is a tranquil nature which continues in itscalmness however long the time and however the situationchanges.
True peace is not a veil behind which a restless character hides,only to be brought to light by unexpected events!
The person who is tranquil by nature is not hurt by problems orclashes, rather the contrary, they show up his compassion, hisgentleness and kindness of heart.
Saint Paul the Apostle lived in difficult surroundings, "intribulations, in needs, in distresses, in stripes, inimprisonments,... ", nevertheless he said in the introduction toall this, that it was, "in much patience,". (2 Cor.6:4-5) And hesaid, in the spirit of faith, "Therefore we do not lose heart. Eventhough our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man isbeing renewed day by day. " (2 Cor.4:16). He also referred toall his problems and hardships by the phrase, "For our lightaffliction, which is but for a moment". (2 Cor.4:17).
173.
True calmness is not external but internal. This calmness
does not only show on the outside whilst a volcano rageswithin. On the contrary, a person's internal peace is the sourceand origin of his outer calmness. We will speak about this pointin greater detail when we talk about the tranquillity of the heart.
4.
There is a difference between true calmness and
impassiveness, which might well be a kind of coldness that ismeant to provoke.
The calm person, one who loves peace, is not only calm himself,but tries to make others around him calm to spread peacearound them. But it might sometimes happen that a person withstrong nerves may put up with a fretful friend, replying to himvery calmly or very coolly in a way that actually provokes hisnerves even more, and makes him more agitated. Thisincreased agitation is then met with even greater calmness andcold composure on the part of the one with the stronger nerves,who takes pleasure in provoking his unfortunate friend andmaking him an object of criticism in front of those present.
This sort of calmness is not at all what is meant by spiritualcalmness.
The spiritually calm person does not demolish another throughhis own calmness. His fretful brother is entrusted in his care.He is responsible for safeguarding his brother's nerves andreputation and to lead him to find peacefulness too.Consequently, he would not provoke his friend because he
18himself is a lover of peace. He wants peace for others just as hewants it for himself. He does not let the Devil of False Gloryattack him with a 'bogus peace', in which he would provoke hisbrother to become his angry and agitated adversary bymaintaining a false, proud, superior calmness at his brother'sexpense. Satan would indeed be pleased to see him induce suchan angry and exasperated state in his opponent.
The successful person does not gain spiritual satisfaction fromseeing the downfall of another, but rather, as a result of his owncalmness, spreads peace to all. He meets others calmly,whether they are for him or against him. If he finds that theother person is angry, he placates him with a gentle reply andnot one likely to rouse his anger. (Prov. 15:1)
5. The peaceful person may be calm by nature by being born
that way or, his calmness may have been acquired.
The naturally calm person does not make great efforts to arriveat a state of calmness, because he shuns all that is not peaceful.
As far as acquired calmness is concerned though, this requireseffort and practice and is a subject which we will discuss later,God willing. Every effort that is made to reach a state of peacehas its own reward.
A person who needs to strive to acquire calmness may attainsuch a state gradually. But having attained it, he no longer hasto make such strenuous efforts because at this stage, he willhave become firmly grounded, stable and experienced in the
19life of peace. Thus he retains that which he has acquired byhard work and of course by the great assistance of God's grace.
Saint Moses the Black is a good example of someone whoacquired calmness through training. He was not born like that,but in fact he started life as a cruel murderer. Then when heentered the monastic life, he began to discipline himself incalmness until he mastered it so well that when he was calledfor his ordination as a priest, and the Pope ordered him to besent away in order to test him, Saint Moses left quietly, blaminghimself without feeling upset inside. Then, when they allowedhim to return, he went back quietly without hurting his dignity.
In view of this, it was not so strange that one of the saints sawhim in a vision being fed on honeycomb by the angels.
If you are not calm by nature, do not make excuses saying:"What can I do?! I was just born that way!!
Even if you were born that way, or inherited a lack of calmnessfrom father or mother, that is no excuse. You can change whatyou inherited. Someone who has not obtained natural calmnesscan acquire calmness by training himself, and striving hard togain it. The qualities which a person is born with are not as afixed rule unable to be changed. They are so easily changed ifthe good intention exists, accompanied by a sinceredetermination, hard work and effort, then the Lord will give youa new heart, removing from you the heart of stone and give youa heart of flesh as he promised. (Ezek.36:26)
20Virtues Connected with Tranquillity1. Tranquillity has a relationship with love, to which itgives and from which it takes. The loving person is tranquilin his relationships with people. He does not react againstthem, because he loves them. As for hatred, if it enters theheart, it is like a raging volcano which never quietens, it wantsvengeance and wants to demolish. It does not subside until ithas achieved what it wants and has ruined everything else.
The world needs love and peace in order for its problems to besolved. They can be solved by reconciliation and peace withcalmness. In the calmness of a discussion that is soaked withlove, people can come together in order to solve their problems,however much their views differ. If calmness disappears,however, love disappears with it, since love cannot existalongside confusion and disorder, sharp voices and discourteousbehaviour.
You can love the peaceful person, his calmness attracts you.The features of his face alone make you love him. His calmmanner of dealing with things makes you love him too. If youshould get irritated with him for any reason, his tranquillity willovercome you and avert your irritation. Thus the Lord spokewell of the meek in heart, that they will inherit the earth bywhich is meant the earth here, and heaven. They will obtainpeople's love on earth because of their meekness andpeacefulness, just as they will obtain the land of the living too.(Ps.27:13)
212. Thus the virtue of calmness is also connected topeace: the calm person is always peaceful and the peacefulperson is also calm. The calm person, "He will not quarrel norcry out, Nor will anyone hear His voice in the streets." (Matt.12:19), as was said about the Lord Jesus. Thus he livespeacefully with people because he does not quarrel with anyoneor raise his voice at them, and because he does not solve hisproblems with people by using force but calmness.
Peace may well be lost between one rude person and another,but it is not lost between a rude person and a calm one, becausethe calm one can withstand the rude.
It is rather like the saying that fire cannot be extinguished byfire, but by water. If the calm person by his calmness can pacifythe rude, then it goes without saying that peace can existbetween two calm people.
Calmness is one of the manifestations of inner peace, it is also afactor which contributes to it. Whoever maintains his calmnessmaintains his inner peace.3. The relationship between calmness and gentleness isself-evident, since calmness is a branch of gentleness, or one ofits outward signs, so that one could say that they areinterchangeable. When you speak about the calm person, youare also speaking about gentleness. The person who loses hiscalm obviously loses his gentle temper. When we speak of therelationship between calmness and gentleness, we are justspeaking about the relationship between the part and the whole.
224.The relationship between calmness and depth: the
calm person, through his calmness, can reach the depths, if hehas a gift for contemplation. But it is not necessarily the casethat a calm person is deep.
It would be more correct for us to say that every deep person iscalm. Here I marvel at an expression given by one of thespiritual men of letters, which I have probably repeated to youon more than one occasion, which is: "When God cast me as apebble into the lake of life, I caused bubbles at its surface andcircles rippling out to infinity. But when I reached the bottom, Ibecame calm."
The waves are turbulent on the surface of the sea, just as thedepths of the sea, or the bottom of the ocean are calm, so too isthe person. When he is going through a unimportant period andliving a superficial and shallow life, he wants to cause ripples onthe surface of life with circles rippling outwards to infinity, butwhen he reaches a more mature age and can think more deeply,he becomes calm.
The shallow, superficial person is restless, he goes around tryingto 'find' himself, or trying to fulfil himself, whichever way hecan.5.At this point 1 would like to distinguish betweendepth and intelligence, in relation to calmness.
Some intelligent people have an intelligence which is justintellectual ability. Their spirits and hearts are not on the same
23level as their minds, so they do not reach the full depth that ismeant here, by this I mean depth of thought, heart, mind andspirit. Not every intelligent person is deep. But the deepperson is intelligent. The intelligent person who lacks depthmay fall into errors that make him lose his calmness.
Therefore the intelligent person can comprehend that whichanother cannot and as a result regards this other person as hisinferior, and piles blame and scorn upon him if he works withhim or under his command, thus losing his calmness in hisdealings with him. Sometimes, on account of his intelligence,he detects many other people's mistakes and so becomes angrywith them or becomes annoyed within himself at their errors,and in this way loses his peace from both inside and outside.
Intelligence, by itself, has troubles of its own if it is notaccompanied by meekness and humility.
If the mind is boisterous and thinks too highly of itself, it losesits calmness. And if the mind is pompous and proud, it loses itscalmness and peace in its relationship with God and withpeople. Whoever has been given intelligence by God must praythat God will give him the meekness and humility of heart sothat intelligence does not degenerate into arrogance and makehim lose his peace.6. The relationship between calmness and the virtue ofhumility: Saint Dorotheus said: "The humble person does notanger anyone, nor is he angered by anyone. " He does not makeanyone angry because he asks for the blessing and prayers of
24everyone. He is not angered by anyone because he always laysthe blame for everything on himself. Whoever is in thissituation lives in peace with all people. If he loses his humility,he loses his calmness. Likewise, the humble person does notlose his calmness because of running after desires, as he doesnot see himself as deserving of anything and he does not wantto be raised above the situation which he is in already.7.The relationship between calmness, faith andsurrender: Whoever lives a life of faith, lives in peace,surrendering his whole life to God, accepting everything in faithfrom His loving hands, is not upset or annoyed by anything, ,but rather is continually peaceful, saying with the ProphetDavid: "Though an army may encamp against me, My heartshall not fear." (Ps.27)
In faith he says, "All is for the best". If a problem surrounds himhe has faith that God will solve it, which is why his heart stayscalm. If troubles exhaust him, he says, "Their course will cometo an end," and his heart once again becomes calm.
In contrast to this is the person who is remote from the life offaith and surrendering to God, whose thoughts tire him and whonever becomes calm. If problems occur they completelyexhaust him because he does not put before him the help thatcomes from above. Those who do not live a life of faith try todisturb other people's tranquillity by the harm and damage thatthey bring upon them.
258.The connection between calmness and living withGod: How beautiful are the words of Saint Augustine in thebook of his confessions, when he addresses the Lord with thisbeautiful, deep phrase: "Our heart is restless until it finds itsrest in you." This is because the source of the heart'stranquillity is not the world, with its passions and desires, butGod alone. No one who lives far from God can live in peace,his heart remains troubled as if stopped by the winds of hisdesires, until he comes to know God and experiences thesweetness of living with Him. Only then does he find calm andpeace, like a traveller on a troubled sea who reaches the port ofsafety.The Benefit of Calmness
In calmness, a person can think in a balanced way. Withcalmness he can solve his problems, with no agitation orconfusion of thoughts. In calmness he can deal with people andthey accept his words. Generally speaking, the peaceful personis loved by others. How beautiful are the words of Saint Peterthe Apostle: "the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quietspirit". (1 Pet.3:4) Calmness, then, is something whichbeautifies the soul.
A life of calmness and quietness is a holy commandment towhich the Bible calls us. Saint Paul the Apostle said: "aspire tolead a quiet life". (1 Thess. 4:11). The Bible also says:"Calmness can lay great errors to rest". (Eccl.10:4).
26Even in practical matters of life, whatever is done calmly tendsto produce better results.
The Communion bread which is baked over a gentle flame turnsout perfectly, while that which they bake over a fierce flamegets burnt on the outside and is underdone on the inside. In thesame way, any food that is cooked over a gentle flame turns outbetter and is more beneficial to the health. In farming there isthe example of land which is irrigated gently.
In dealing with people, the calm way is more effective for thesoul and brings the right result. In contrast to this, forcefulmethods bring bad reactions. We will talk about the benefits ofcalmness in more detail in the coming chapters.The Disadvantages of Lacking Calmness
The person who is not spiritually calm places the worries of theworld on himself, thus causing him many problems. He loseshis inner peace and experiences anxiety and mental frustrationbecause of the troubles involved. He may also experiencedepression, sadness and confusion. As a result, he may becomeafflicted with numerous illnesses such as mental fatigue. Lossof peace causes nervous tension and this results in a personlosing his peace of mind. Each is a cause and effect of theother. The person whose nerves are not calm does himselfharm, physically, emotionally and socially.
He changes his personality and loses other people's respect forhim. The teacher who is calm and firm is respected by his
27pupils. The one who rants angrily with threats, reprimands andharsh words towards his pupils, loses their respect for him andis not taken seriously by them. Whenever they want to provokehim they can do so easily.
Likewise a mother who shouts loudly, scolds, yells, smacks andthreatens her children, imagining that by doing this that she isbringing them up properly, instead makes her relationship withthem a constant row and struggle.
The person who is not calm loses his composure with otherpeople. He gets angry with them and they get angry with him.If he loses his calmness and clashes with them, how easy it is forthem to react in the same way! He loses their friendship andlove and he may also lose their respect. He may be confrontedwith their hostility and enter into bad relationships.
If he loses his calmness he may become noisy, unruly and startcreating trouble. He may become rebellious and rude. Bylosing his peace, his internal confusion may also becomeapparent externally with his behaviour appearing unbalanced.Because he is not calm, the slightest word bothers him, theslightest action of another provokes him.
He may have a desire for revenge, to defend himself, to provehis existence, or to preserve his dignity, becoming agitatedwithout achieving any result, and thus clashing with others. Thecalm person, even if provoked, replies calmly and wins thesituation as a result of his calmness.
28A person who is not calm loses in a conflict and mistakes arepinned on him. Perhaps he is the one who was originallywronged, but replying rudely or answering with the wrong replyresults in the situation being reversed. He becomes theaggressor rather than the injured party!!
The calm person, however, even if the discussion getsoverheated, can calm it down. As the Bible says: "A softanswer turns away wrath." (Prov. 15:1) and also: "The quietwords of the wise are more to be heeded than the shouts of aruler of fools " (Eccl. 9:17). The person who is not calm isprone to many errors, while the Bible says: "Calmness can laygreat errors to rest" also: "A wholesome tongue is a tree oflife," (Prov. 15:4).
We cannot calculate the damage and negative effects that resultfrom handling things with violence, forcefulness or tension. Arestless person might imagine that by expressing himself soforcefully, he is expressing his masculinity and strength ofcharacter!!
A forceful and aggressive approach does not in any way provemasculinity or strength of character. The calm person is alwaysstronger because he is able to control his temper andwords, stronger also because he has risen above the level ofbeing easily provoked or incited, stronger because in hiscalmness he is able to control the situation and think of a way ofsolving the difficulty without getting upset. Thus the Apostlesays: "We then who are strong ought to bear with the scruplesof the wear". (Rom. 15:1).
29What a deep stumbling block it is for children whose parentsquarrel. The house loses its calmness and the father and motherare tense, perhaps they are abusive or fight each other. Eachwants to prove that they are stronger, that they are right, thatthey can give as good an answer as the other. The result is thatthey lose their children's respect because of the stumbling blockand bad example they represent. These parents also lose theirgood reputation with the neighbours, who may start to say "thatis a house which has lost its peace"! Perhaps the following pageswill clarify in greater detail the negative effects of losing one'scalmness.Examples of Calmness
The most outstanding example is God Himself, blessed be Hisname. If only we could contemplate the tranquillity in whichGod created the world and the peace the Bible speaks about inthe events of the Creation.
For example, the Bible says: "And God said, 'Let there be light',and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and Heseparated the light from the darkness." (Gen. 1:3). Thiswonderful event is conveyed by the simple phrase, "and therewas light".
The peace of God in the face of paganism and atheism issomething quite marvellous. There are those who deny theexistence of God or who worship stones and statues instead ofHim, yet no rebellion is raised in heaven against them. Goddoes not send down fire from heaven to burn them or destroy
30them. People blaspheme against God, but He is calm. Yetthese blasphemers remain alive to live and enjoy themselves, asif nothing has happened.
Indeed, men seek their revenge against God, but God does notseek to avenge Himself! God is leaving them all until the Dayof Judgement, and for now, he still offers them opportunities torepent and return.
In fact, even more than this, the Bible says of God that He: "Hemakes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rainon the just and on the unjust." (Matt. 5:45), which means thatthe wicked and the unjust enjoy his universal blessings too, justas if they had not broken his commandments!!
How great is God's calmness also in his dealings with Satan!!This evil being who opposes the Kingdom of God so violentlyand with such indifference, trying with all his craftiness to keeppeople away from God and to spread corruption on earth.Nevertheless, Satan still exists. Although it has always beenwithin God's power to destroy him and wipe him out, God hasnot done that. He confronts all Satan's disobedience calmly andhas left him on the principle of giving him his equal opportunityto test the believers until he obtains his punishment on the LastDay.
Sometimes the Devil goes too far and God calmly stops himwhen he has reached the limit. He often removes Satan's eviland trials far away from us, so calmly that we are not evenaware of it.
31Look at the stillness in which the miracle of the Incarnation wasperformed. The Lord came to our world very quietly, not in aprocession of Cherubim or in the midst of psalms and hymnsfrom the angels, but in such quiet circumstances that Herod didnot realise it or know where he was to be found! Many peopleon entering a place are preceded by their noisy fuss, they raisetheir voices to indicate their arrival or call to others from hereand there.
Further, look at how quietly God performs miracles. Miraclesoften happen in secret without anyone seeing and without Godannouncing them, and people only learned of it later. So manymiracles have taken place which have not been written about inthe Bible, "if they were written one by one, I suppose that eventhe world itself could not contain the books that would bewritten." (John 21:25).
As an example of this there are the miracles which happenedduring the visit of the Holy Family to Egypt, which wereperformed quietly and not recorded in the Gospels. We onlyknow of a few of them that history has recorded.
Look also at heaven with its serenity, filled with the angels andthe saints. They are a wonderful example of calmness. All theangels who are there carry out God's commands with amazingswiftness and quietness. They have put before them the phrase,"Thy will be done". The angels also work on earth with us andaround us, in such wonderful calmness that we may be unawareof them and their actions. Even so, "Are they not allministering spirits sent forth to minister for those who willinherit salvation?" (Heb. 1:14). In the same quiet way the
32saints work with us. They have learned serenity from the LordJesus.
Reflect also upon the tranquillity of the Lord Jesus when helived as a man on earth, the calm replies he gave to hisadversaries among the scribes, Pharisees, Sadducees, highpriests and elders of the people, and the remarkable calmnesswith which he faced their challenges, insults and falseaccusations. Look at how he replied to them objectively andpersuasively without rising at their hurtful words, when theysaid to him, "Aren't we right in saying that you are a Samaritanand demon-possessed?" Or when they said of Him that He was,"a glutton and a winebibber, a friend of tax collectors andsinners!" (Matt. 11:19).
What is more amazing still is the Lord's calmness during hisarrest. He waited calmly for that hour, and faced it calmly: bothinwardly and outwardly. He stood saying calmly to them,""Whom are you seeking?" And when they replied, "Jesus ofNazareth", He said, "I am He". On account of his extremecomposure the soldiers drew back and fell to the ground. (John18:5-8)
Calmly he received the kiss of Judas the Traitor without hurtinghis feelings in return. In fact He said to him, "Friend, why haveyou come?" (Matt. 26:50).
All of Christ's behaviour at that critical hour was extremelycalm. He was concerned for the safety of his disciples and saidto the soldiers, "If you seek Me, let these go their way". (John18:8). When Peter the Apostle wanted to use force and drew
33his sword and struck the servant of the high priest cutting offhis ear, the Lord charged him to preserve the peace saying, "Putyour sword in its place, for all who take the sword will perishby the sword." (Matt. 26:52).
During His trial He was very calm "He was led as a lamb to theslaughter, And as a sheep before its shearers is silent, So Heopened not His mouth." (Is. 53:7). In the council of theSanhedrin they confronted him with accusations, "But He keptsilent and answered nothing." (Mark 14:61). Before him werefalse witnesses whose testimonies did not agree. Before Pilate,He was also very calm. He stood silent and when He spoke Hisanswers baffled the governor so that he said: "what evil has Hedone? I have found no reason for death in Him." (Luke23:22).
When Jesus was buried, he rose from the dead in such aremarkable, quiet way, at an hour of which no one knew,without any noise, without any announcement before the peopleand without any outward show of greatness and power, that theJews even doubted his resurrection. Thus they spread rumoursthat his disciples had come by night and stole his body (Matt.28:13-15). What a wonderful thing?! We do not have the timehere, nor are we able to speak about all that took place soquietly.
From the example of the Lord comes the calmness of themartyrs during their martyrdom; remarkable calmness duringtheir arrests, during their trials and torture, in their periods ofimprisonment and at the hour of death. In fact, they used tosing hymns and psalms in praise of God while in the depths ofprisons, just as Paul and Silas did when they were in the inner
34dungeon with their feet bound (Acts 16:24-25).
How did they face death in such total calmness and total joy?Their stories which are long and have many aspects, give ashining picture of tranquil spirits whose peacefulness wasderived from a deep faith in a better life after death, or perhapsfrom visions and revelations which provided assurance to thesoul on its eternal course.
The stories of the tranquillity of the saints during their lives arelong and wonderful, but perhaps we can just present a fewexamples of them here.
There was the peacefulness in which our fathers lived in thedesert, the wonderful tranquillity of nature, the stillness of thesoul within that they showed and the serenity of its thoughtsand contemplations. There is also the calmness with which theyfaced the attacks of the Devils, without fear or distress. Alsothe calm in which they conducted their lives, so that it was saidof them that they were 'earthly angels or heavenly humans'.This was due to the excellence of the gentle way of life bywhich they were characterised and the calmness of nature whichthey showed by not rebelling or getting angry however muchexternal factors pressed upon them and however much theywere exposed to insults and false accusations.
How wonderful was the tranquillity of Saint Marina forexample, when she was accused of adultery - as a man - and ofhaving fathered a son from a young girl like herself! And howshe spent a period of repentance for a sin she did not commit,all without the least complaint or grumble!
35Then there is the example of the saint whom they called AI-Habila (ie foolish), in the days of the Saint Anba Daniel. Howshe endured continuous insults with total serenity and joy asthough they were crowns upon her head.
36CHAPTER 2Types of Calmness
1.
Calmness of Temperament
2.
Calmness of the Nerves
3.
Stillness of the Tongue
4.
Inner Tranquillity-Calmness of the Heart and Thoughts
5.
Serenity of the Features
6.
Stillness of the Body and the Senses
37Calmness is composed of various elements: calmness oftemperament, tranquillity of the nerves and stillness of the body,which includes the serenity of the senses, movements andfeatures. There is also inner calmness, the peacefulness of thesoul, which is made up of the tranquillity of the heart andthoughts. From this also comes calmness of speech andbehaviour.
The person who is really calm, is calm in every way. Hisbehaviour is calm, his dealings with people are calm. He liveswith an inner peace which radiates as peace on the outside.Whatever peace there is inside him overflows as peace outsidehim. If he speaks he speaks calmly, even if he is being firm andcorrecting another, he does so calmly.
He does not lose his calmness whatever the reason might be,whatever the provocation from outside, because he isaccustomed to being calm, and calmness has become part of hischaracter.Calmness of Temperament
Some people may be born calm by nature or temperament, ormight have inherited calmness from their parents, while othershave trained themselves to be calm by practising it and makingit a habit so it became their nature.
38Others, however, are the opposite, they have no calmness intheir character, their nature is fiery. Wherever one of themstays, tension accompanies him and the temperature rises. Hisunrest precedes him. He is tantamount to a burning flamewhich wherever it is cast, ignites and burns and explodes insparks. His glances are full of fire, his words are bombshells,his requests are orders and threats that have to be carried outimmediately.
When someone with a fiery character finds a quiet-naturedperson, he tries to provoke him, but if the calm personencounters a fiery one he tries to pacify him.
What is your character like? Is it a fiery one or a peaceful one?If the former is the case, and you have a fiery nature, do notdespair and do not give up and submit to it as if it weresomething unchangeable even if you were born with it.Characters can be changed and when trained can become theiropposite.
Saint Moses the Black at the start of his life had a harshfrightening, murderous nature, but he was transformed into agentle, calm person who loved people and was loved by them, awelcoming person, smiling and meek.
Saint John the Beloved did not begin his life that way, for bothhe and his brother James were nicknamed Boanerges, meaningSons of Thunder. (Mark 3:17). When one of the Samaritanvillages refused to accept the Lord, James and John asked him ifthey could, "call fire down from heaven to destroy them".(Luke 9:54). But with time and through the actions of the Holy
39Spirit, this fiery nature calmed down and John was turned intoJohn the Beloved who spoke of love.
When it comes to calmness, what a difference there is betweenthe nature of the roots and the nature of the boughs andbranches. The branches, by their very nature, bow and bendwith the winds to left and right according to the wind'sdirection, and may cause a soft or loud sound as they bend. Butthe roots extend into the ground quietly without a sound,drawing in their nourishment and feeding the restless branchestoo.
Let us now move from calmness of character to another pointwhich is:Calmness of The Nerves
There are individuals whose temper is calm, and others whosetemper is inflamed. The person with a calm temper does not getupset quickly and perhaps even slowly. It is as if he is anunshakeable mountain, or like the six great stones which areexposed to the Nubian Nile which, however much the wavessurge against them, remain calmly fixed in their place,unaffected by the disturbance around them.
But the person whose nerves are raw is easily agitated, he rantsand raves perhaps for the most trivial of reasons, or for noreason at all, just because of his inner doubts and imaginings.
40The person whose temper is calm is a strong person becauseexternal factors cannot provoke him but rather his strong nervesare able to resist them. And because of this inner strength, hegains people's respect and admiration.
As for the one who is agitated and shouting, however much herages and creates a fuss, abuses and threatens, and seems tofrighten others, he does not gain anyone's respect. His agitationindicates the weakness of his temper, or the weakness of hischaracter.
If anyone wishes to make a spectacle or an object of ridicule of thisweek person, he can. For example, if there is a teacher whose nerves areweak, he is unable to bear a mistake or outburst from a student,so that any pupil could say to his classmate, "Do you want tosee me make this teacher get all worked up? " He isn't dreadedto the pupils at all. He just looks ridiculous. So then he behavesin a way that he knows will provoke the teacher and then sitsback to watch!
Calm nerves depend on two things: the physical state and thepsychological. There are many physiological reasons for thenerves to become exhausted but we will not go into them allnow. We will turn our attention here to a physical cause whichoften drains people's nerves, even the best of people, and that istiredness. If the body is exhausted because of tiredness andstrain, then the nerves get to the point of being unable to bearanything.
My advice to you if you find yourself in such a situation is, notto enter into a long conversation or lengthy discussion with
41anyone, especially with those who hold rigid views, and who arenot easily persuaded. It is not right, in such a state ofexhaustion, to try and decide important matters or solveproblems. Take care not to get into arguments when you areexhausted, for you may lose your temper.
The state of exhaustion requires sleep, or at least rest andrelaxation. Your loved ones must take note of your state oftiredness and not draw you into a discussion or try to solveproblems while you are in such a state.
One of the ways to aid calmness of the nerves is the spirit of joyand cheerfulness. Cheerfulness produces in the body a state ofrelaxation which soothes the nerves. All those who arecharacterised by a cheerful spirit have tranquil nerves and donot get agitated easily. They may meet provocation with asense of humour that makes those who are trying to provokethem laugh too, so that the matter subsides. Those who arenarrow minded and straitlaced, who imagine that laughter is asin, you will often find that their nerves are tense. The strictseverity with which they meet people's behaviour often makesthe atmosphere lose its tranquillity and the situation becomeaggravated. I hope to return to this point, God willing, when wespeak about the factors which contribute to calmness. But letus continue on straightaway to talk about the harm whichresults from nerves that lack tranquillity.
The person whose nerves are easily agitated harms himself as aresult, and also harms others. He harms himself with mentalillnesses, heart disease and high blood pressure and also variouspsychological illnesses which result from his over
42reacting and angry outbursts. He may be forced to taketranquillisers, and sleeping pills to try to calm his nerves for awhile, then the stress returns once again through psychologicalmotives from within and external provocation, and he againresorts to tranquillisers! His nerves become like elastic, whichthrough constant stretching and slackening loses its elasticityand is ruined.
Such a person enters the whirlpool of problems caused bynervous illnesses. Although medicine tries to treat thesymptoms, the more important thing is to treat the reasonsbehind the nervous problems, and at the outset try to convincethe person of the need to be calm. Calm souls do not sufferfrom nervous illness and have no need for tranquillisers becausethey are peaceful by nature.
The person who can control and calm his nerves can alsocontrol his words and not make mistakes. Likewise he cancontrol his behaviour and be in command of himself, thuswinning rather than losing in situations in which he is involved.
All these things require a healthy spiritual attitude and an innerconviction in the individual that he can preserve his character,his rights and his dignity by being calm. He must realise thatnervous outbursts are a clear mistake. This is an obviousweakness before other people which loudly proclaims that theindividual concerned is unable to solve his problems usingreason and logic in a calm way and thus resorts to nervousoutbursts. The person whose nerves flare up is giving anindication that evil has got the better of him and he has beenunable to resist it, which is why he flared up; while the Apostle
43says: "Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil withgood." (Rom.12:21).
Someone who has irritable nerves is a person who has noresistance and who has collapsed inside, while someone whohas calm nerves is a resilient and fully composed person.Stillness of The Tongue
Someone with a peaceful manner of speaking is loved by all, buta restless tongue makes its owner make many errors. There arevarious outward signs of a restless tongue which we maymention:1.The talkative tongue, which never stops talking, while
the Bible says: "In the multitude of words sin is not lacking,"(Prov. 10:19). It is a tongue which talks continuously on anysubject, even on things that are beyond its scope andknowledge. It cannot keep quiet. It cannot control itself towithin its lips and teeth. It has to go out and talk, and justcannot stop at all, even on the finer points of science andpolitics! The main thing is that it talks and that is enough, evenabout other people's affairs, their secrets and personal matters.It is a restless tongue. And due to its restlessness, its ownercannot control it or subdue it. The Apostle James says: "Ifanyone among you thinks he is religious, and does not bridlehis tongue but deceives his own heart, this one's religion isuseless." (James 1:26). Therefore every person needs to curbhis tongue and not leave it free to wander restlessly from onesubject to another, without restraint. If he is unable to do this,
44then let him pray and say: "Set a guard, O LORD, over mymouth; keep watch over the door of my lips." (Ps. 141:3).2.From a restless tongue comes a sharp, raised, loudvoice. The Bible gives us an example of calm speech in theconversation between God and the Prophet Elijah: "and a greatand strong wind tore into the mountains and broke the rocks inpieces before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind;and after the wind an earthquake, ... and after the earthquakea fire, but the LORD was not in the fire; and after the fire astill small voice. .. Suddenly a voice came to him, and said,"What are you doing here, Elijah?" (1 Kin. 19:11:13) , and thiswas God's voice speaking to him.
The calm person speaks in a quiet voice like a passing breeze,but the restless person speaks with a voice like a gusty wind.
There are preachers who, even in a sermon, preach with a high,sharp voice and reprove the congregation harshly. What wassaid about the public speakers of old applies to them, that they'shook the columns of the pulpits' and had their listeners sittingon the edge of their seats. Such methods of preaching tends toupset the people instead of having spiritual effects.
The spiritual preacher convinces the congregation through calmspiritual teaching and through the action of the Spirit in him andin them, kindling them with God's love through the effectivenessof the Spirit, and not the agitation of the bodily senses. Manypeople are affected during the sermon by a preacher whohimself is over-excited. But after a while they
45lose this effect. On the other hand, calm spiritual persuasionhas a more permanent and has a greater effect within the soul.
Although a loud voice has to be used sometimes in the middleof a crowd of people so that they can hear, there is no need atall to use it in private conversations! The calm person does notraise his voice when he is talking with others. He does not usea voice that is louder than his listener requires. Thus in hisdiscussions there is no noisiness. Is it not sometimes the casethat when some people are holding a discussion, they raise theirvices and interrupt, so that those who hear think that they arequarrelling?! Yes, to be sure, there are some people who shoutwhen they talk and shriek when they whisper. They talk rapidlyand their voices are noisy.3.Among the outward signs of a voice that lackscalmness there is also the tendency to use hurtful, harshwords. There may be a person, for example, whose speech isharsh and difficult, whose words are bitter, hurtful, critical,biting, and destructive. Whose words are expelled from hismouth as if they were a shell from a rocket. He could expressthe same opinion and intention with calm words.4.One of the aspects of calmness of the tongue iscalmness in conversation. The calm person discusses quietlyand in this way wins others over. Just as Saint Didimus theBlind used to do when he debated with philosophers andheathens with the utmost politeness, without attacking them.His method was to win them, not crush or embarrass them.
46The restless speaker turns the conversation into a fight or aquarrel in which the discussion gets heated and the atmospheretense and extremely electric.
You find a readiness to pounce and attack in his manner, and astrong tendency to reply before he has heard the opinion in full.He converses with you not to understand you or to arrive at thetruth with you, but in order to dumbfound you by his ownarguments and to defeat you and shatter your opinions andexpose your weakness. During the conversation he feels that hehas to ridicule you and your views and make you a laughingstock, as if you are an enemy and he wants to get his revenge.
On the other hand, the person who discusses calmly, wins youover as a friend during the conversation. He talks objectively,with complete calmness, not interrupting during your speakingor being too personal, and if you become too excited he calmsyou down.
He may persuade you so that you come to agree on his opinionwithout you feeling that you have gone away defeated. Hiscalmness does not in any way make you feel that you areadversaries, but rather that you are two friends trying to arriveat the truth together. In contrast to this is the highly-strungspeaker whose eyes redden during the discussion, whose voiceis raised and who gets exasperated raising objections irritablyand rudely. He may even use words which imply an insult.
People who are not calm are always interrupting each otherwhen they are discussing. There may be five in the discussion,four talking at once with just one listening to the noise. None
47of them are prepared to listen any of the others. They allinterrupt each other, whereas if there were a hundred calmpeople having a discussion it would be done in strict order, youwould not hear an outside voice.
Though many ideas wrestle with each other, there is only onetruth. Yet each person thinks that the truth is his personal view.If there is calmness you can come together with people,however different their views, in a conversation that is filledwith love.5.What we have been saying about discussion we canalso say about reproof. The quiet reproach leads to peace,while the loud one only exacerbates the division and contention.We have a beautiful example of the Lord Jesus rebuking Peterafter the Resurrection. He did not say to him, "Come here, youtraitor, you who were afraid of a servant girl, you who sworeand cursed and said, 'I don't know the man'. Is this what youpromised me before when you said, "If everyone denies you, 1will not deny you'?"
The Lord Jesus did not say a single hurtful word to him, he justasked him quietly, "Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me morethan these?" He said to Him, "Yes, Lord; You know that I loveYou." He said to him, 'Feed My sheep.' He said to him again asecond time, "Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me more thanthese?' ... 'Feed My lambs.' ... 'Tend My sheep.'" (John 21:15-17). And he repeated the question three times, until Peterunderstood. The rebuke had its effect and love was established,without Peter's heart being wounded.
486.It is not only desirable that the tongue should becalm, but even more so that it should be calming. As anexample of calming speech we have the words of the Bible: "Asoft answer turns away wrath". (Prov. 15: 1)
Another example is the comforting father confessor, whosoothes the soul of the one confessing and gives him peace ofthe heart, releasing him from his heart's unrest that has occurredon account of his sins. In contrast to that is the father confessorwho sends the penitent away feeling that he has lost his peace,overcome by despair and feeling that he must inevitably bedoomed.
The calm person's serenity overflows onto others, and soothesthem if they are distressed. But the restless person infects themwith his turmoil and unsettles them if they are calm.Inner Tranquillity
It is not enough that the person be calm just on the outside, inhis speech and nerves, but he must also be calm on the inside.His spirit must be tranquil. Serenity on the outside springs fromcalmness of the soul on the inside. As for the soul which isboiling from within, wherever it settles comes tension and a risein temperature. It lives like a flame which burns and spreads itsfire here and there wherever it is thrown. It reaches the pointthat when some people see this type of person entering a placethey whisper to each other, "Oh Lord help us".
49But with the person who is calm from within, we can see hisinner calm overflowing as tranquillity on the outside. You findhis voice calm, his walking graceful, his behaviour and hisdiscussions calm and restful. Due to his calmness he does notshout or quarrel rather his relations are good with all people, ashe does not resort to arguing or rudeness with anyone. And thatis just on the outside.
As far as the inside is concerned, he enjoys calm thoughts and apeaceful heart. You find that the many thoughts of the personwho is restless inside are surging and confused, coming andgoing, not settled at all. One idea pulls him one way, anotherpulls him the other way. His mind is always changing and histhoughts affect him because he is unstable.
The restless person also suffers from a lack of calmness in hisfeelings. His emotions and feelings are restless, his desires andhopes inconstant. Imagination sometimes pulls him to heightswhich he can never reach, but practical thoughts bring himdown to his reality which is remote from his hopes. He remainsconfused between desire and reality, and his emotions disturbhim. He may be prone to a number of psychological disorders.There are various examples of this which we can mention suchas the person who loses his peace of mind by living in anxiety.Anxiety points to a lack of peace in the soul. Anxiety gives riseto fear and the anxious person's thoughts are not calm, orstable.
Anxiety may invite doubt and doubt does not make the soultranquil. A person who doubts can never be calm at all fromwithin. He continuously asks himself whether he is right in his
50misgivings, or whether it is possible that his suspicions areuntrue and wonders how he can prove the truth in these doubtsand confirm them. His thoughts continue to lack calm and mayexhaust him and torture him psychologically. This exhaustionincreases his lack of tranquillity, and this doubt can also exhaustthe person in his relationships with others.
There are various types of doubt, all of which cause loss ofpeace, whether it is doubt about facts or individuals, doubtabout relationships, doubt about faith or even God Himself.Sometimes the person's doubt is over his future and what heanticipates in it. But in every case the mind is troubled and thesoul disturbed.
Whatever the situation, a peaceful heart brings peacefulthoughts. If someone's heart is relaxed and tranquil, histhoughts will be relaxed and tranquil too, and if his heartbecomes troubled so do his thoughts. The condition of thethoughts depends on the heart. If there are storms andvolcanoes in the heart, you find that the thoughts are jostledabout as if they were goods in a market being bought and sold.If, however, the heart is tranquil, the thoughts will be peacefultoo.
There are individuals whose dispositions are so weak that theybecome upset for the most trivial of reasons, perhaps justbecause of an illusion, and for no real reason. In such confusiontheir heart loses its calmness, their thoughts lose theirtranquillity, their inner peace is lost and their behaviour appearsrestless.
51One of the signs of restlessness of thought is a state ofwandering, changeable thoughts. Calm thought is focused onthe subject of its consideration, it has a depth of reflection. Butthought that is not peaceful goes round and round from onesubject to another, and strays to numerous issues, for examplesomeone whose thoughts wander during prayer. As one of theFathers put it, "If the food of the fire is fuel, the food of themind are its little stories."
Inconstant restless thought is always eager for stories andmoves from one report to another, from one tale to another,from one person to another and even from one city to anotherwithout calming down, even during prayer. It reminds us ofSatan whose work is: "going to and fro on the earth, and fromwalking back and forth on it." (Job 1:7).
Another sign of a lack of calmness of thought is a criticalattitude. A person with this type of thought is displeased witheverything and everybody and is continually rebelling againstcircumstances in which he considers that the truth has been lost.Thus he criticises all that comes before him. Even if it hasnothing to do with him and even if he has not studied thesubject or understood it, he still gets annoyed at everything,grumbles at everything and criticises everything, thus losing histranquillity.
When thought has lost its calmness it acts to spread a lack ofcalmness in the minds of others. It spreads its restless, anxiousthoughts by pouring them into other people's ears, getting allworked up over them and striving to persuade people by them.A person with such thoughts may be successful or he may not.
52Even if he is not successful in spreading his restless views, hedisturbs any calmness because of his unsettling discussions.
Another type of restless thought is persistent thoughts, in whichan idea forces itself on the person's mind, putting pressure onhim in a troubling way. The individual tries to escape from itbut cannot, and through this pressure his calmness is lost. Thisis especially so if those thoughts are with him whether he isawake or asleep, and urge themselves upon him even during hiswork, prayer, and during his rest, without letting go, andwithout relaxation.
Persistent thoughts are often a war from Satan, becausespiritual thoughts are always tranquil. As for Satan, though, heimposes his ideas unmercifully, and drives the person to acthastily. With his insistence he bears down heavily on yournerves and exhausts them so that you believe that the easiestway to find rest from his urging is to act upon them straight-away. Persistent thoughts are thoughts that cause trouble, theydo not want to give the person a chance to seek advice, achance to pray or a chance to examine the ideas and discussthem! It is just as though they want to strongly force theperson!
Among the different types of restless thought are changeablekinds of thoughts, adopting one thought and then its opposite,sometimes agreeing with the issue, sometimes opposing it,sometimes being over enthusiastic about the subject and atother times losing interest, like waves of the sea coming andgoing without rest. This is undetermined, indecisive thoughtthat causes its owner lack of peace and balance. Tranquil
53thought, on the other hand, is like the ship which travels itscourse calmly in one direction without confusion, withoutdiversion to the left or right.
Restless thoughts make the heart lose its calmness. Likewise arestless heart upsets the thoughts. Sometimes the heart isrestless with the emotions, feelings and sensations inside it suchas sadness, passion, lust, tiredness, anger, resentment and envy,the desire for revenge and the desire to possess or dominate.
Someone whose heart contains such feelings as these cannot bepeaceful, nor can his thoughts. But what makes the heart loseits calmness most of all are desires which demand to be fulfilledquickly while in realistic terms there is not the opportunityavailable for such swift action, and therefore the heart loses itscalmness. The tranquil heart regards everything calmly, it doesnot get upset at anything. The restless heart , however, seeseverything as a cause of trouble which is why it becomesdisturbed and provokes confusion wherever it settles!!
The tranquil heart is not upset by external problems. It acceptsthem calmly, deals with them with reason, analyses them,examines them and solves them quietly. It does not allow outerconfusion to enter inside the soul to disturb its serenity!
Someone who has a tranquil heart does not let the problemovercome him, but rather he overcomes it. He says to himself:"I do not want this problem to bother me, or to make me angry,anxious or sad, or to make me lose my peace of mind. I wantthis problem to remain outside and not enter inside my soul".
54The tranquil heart is a deep sea. Troubles may float on itssurface and not disturb its calmness, and if they descend to itsdepths, they dissolve and disappear.
If the person is upset inside and loses his calmness, he isincapable of solving his problems, they bother him and he showsa lack of calmness in his behaviour and in his dealings withpeople and situations.
The tranquil heart is suitable for spiritual activity. But ifsomeone's heart loses its peace, he is unable to reflect. If hetries to pray his thoughts are distracted. If he reads a book hismind wanders during reading. For this reason our Fathers usedto search for peace and quiet, since only in a calm atmosphereand a quiet place can they practise their spiritual life.
The tranquil heart spreads its tranquillity over the whole person:calmness of the heart results in calmness of the thoughts,calmness of the nerves and calmness of the features. We havepreviously spoken of calmness of the nerves and thoughts andnow turn our attention to calmness of the features.Serenity of the Features
Few people can control their facial features. Most often thefeatures reveal the state of the heart, whether the person likes itor not. If his heart is troubled, his confusion shows in hisfeatures. If he is angry, annoyed, disgusted or afraid, all thesestates appear on the features of his face or in the look of hiseyes, even if he is distracted daydreaming, his features reveal it.
55A person's features are an involuntary admission of what isinside him! He may deny that he is troubled, but his featuresshow that he is not telling the truth with his denial. Sometimesthe person loses his composure, and if people ask him for areason he denies it. But the tone of his voice, the movements ofhis hands, the look in his eyes, perhaps the movements of hislips and the colour of his face all speak of what is inside him, ina way that leaves no doubt.
Do not imagine that he heart is a locked treasure house whichconceals its secrets! It is often revealed and openly expressedby way of the features. A person's eye is in most cases a mirrorin which his inner feelings can be seen and in which his thoughtscan probably be read also. Any observant person can see it,which is why some people wear dark glasses so that those withwhom they are sitting cannot see the impressions or feelings intheir eyes.
The person with a tranquil heart has relaxed, serene features.You like to sit with him and regard his face, contemplating thewonderful calmness which overflows from his heart and covershis features. Thus it is hardly surprising that one of the monkssaid to Saint Anba Antonious: "It's enough for me simply tolook at your face, Father", for in the saint's face he could see theinner peace which filled his heart and saw all the purity andgodliness there.
But the person with a restless heart has tense features. Thereare people whose features are unrelaxed when they are in a stateof anger or emotion, and also when they are in a state ofsadness or depression, since they are lacking their inner peace
56and calmness. All this appears in their facial features. Theircondition might reach the point that their features become toodistressing for you to look at them for long. Because theirexpression is tense, they do not contribute to the calmness ofthose who look at them.
It is therefore necessary to have control over the features andcalm them down. It is best for the person to calm his heart andthen his features will automatically become calm.Stillness of The Body And The Senses
There are people whose bodies are restless, who cannot settle inone place. They want to come and go, to get up and sit down,to go out and come in. Even at home they do not settle for verylong, there have to do visits and outings and recreation for thebody and moving from place to place. These people havechangeable, restless bodies. This is the opposite of the monkswho discipline themselves to stillness of the body. The hermitmonk can stay in his cell for days or weeks, without leaving itor moving unless it is essential, and if he moves, it is forsomething worthwhile.
There is a great difference between these people who havebodily stillness and those who move without a reason. Even if arestless person sits alone in a place, you find his body movingcontinuously. If he speaks with anyone you find his handsmoving and his feet and his head also. He may point with hishand or raise his finger as he talks, or continually wave hishands about. If there are two people having a discussion you
57might look at their hands and find them moving all the time.This is quite the opposite to being in the army, where the soldierhas to keep still when he talks, and if he moves his hand theysay to him, "Keep still!".
Sometimes a little movement is necessary to express an innerfeeling, but it should not be continuous, restless movement.
Many people's movements suggest a lack of calmness! If such aperson comes in or goes out, he causes a noise and racketsimply opening and closing the door. If he walks, he walksnoisily. If he drinks, you can hear a noise while he sips. Even ifhe wants to dissolve some sugar in a cup of tea, you wouldthink he was ringing a bell. There is no stillness in hismovements at all, whereas the calm person stays quietly in hisplace and he doesn't make a sound.
In a calm country you find that even the protest demonstrationsthemselves are calm! Demonstrations, according to ourdictionary, however, mean noise and uproar, here and there: agreat throng of demonstrators shouting and chanting slogans,waving their arms and upsetting everything and everybody as ifit is a kind of revolution. But in a calm country thedemonstrators go out and express their views with bannersbearing their demands and their ideas and they move from onestreet to another carrying their ideas quietly.
Calmness of the senses accompanies calmness of the body.Calmness of the senses helps their owner to think calmly. Thealternating senses of seeing, hearing and smell produce thoughtsand thoughts have an effect on feelings of the heart.
58Thus a person might be sitting in a meeting but his eyes aredarting here and there looking to see what this one or that oneis doing.
It is so easy for a person to be influenced by what he sees andhears. In fact even sitting at the table his eyes might be goingaround to see what everyone else is eating, and how he eats,and a whole chain of thoughts follow from this. This is why thedesert Fathers said: "If you enter a brother's cell, don't look atwhat is inside it. And if you sit at a table let your eyes lookonly at what is in front of you".
Inquisitiveness of the senses concerning the secrets of others iscalled adultery of the senses. If the ear tries to hear what it hasno right to hear, the Desert Fathers would call it adultery of theears, and the same goes for spaying, which would suggestthat the ear is not calm. Also the eye which tries to see thatwhich it has no right to see, is a restless sense and its businesshas become like that of Satan: "going to and fro on the earth,and from walking back and forth on it." (Job 2:2).
Changeable, restless senses are at the root of nervous agitation.This is especially true of the ear which goes around in search ofexciting news and the eye which looks for an interesting sightand the mouth which is often asking, "What's the news?". Bydoing so the senses bring to the individual's heart, ears andthoughts something that wears him out and makes him lose hispeace of mind.
The strange thing is that the senses may not calm down evenduring prayer! The eye goes round looking here and there and
59breaks its connection with God, also the ear may be sensitive towhat it can hear during prayer, which distracts the thoughts.This is all because the senses are restless and come from a bodythat is restless and thoughts that are restless also. However, thesenses may not be the body's only problem. The body'srestlessness may come because of its lusts.
The unrest of the body may come because of a physical desirefor food or the lust of the flesh, so that it loses its calmness androams from place to place searching for satisfaction of itsdesires. In their writings the Fathers call these kinds of lusts,pains or aches of the flesh; for the body suffers and is restlessbecause of sin. The body's restlessness may also be due tohealth reasons.Calm Behaviour And Problem Solving
The calm person solves his problems calmly. In the mostdifficult situations he does not lose his calmness, rather hebehaves rationally and in a well-balanced way. His behaviour isthus mentally healthy and acceptable and does not cause violentreactions.
Even when he protests or raises objections he does so calmly, inan objective and convincing way, governed by logic not nervoustension. In this way he is successful in gaining an advantage inthe situation and not clashing with his opponents.
On the other hand, another person, if he protests, does sonoisily, making a fuss with a loud voice, accusing the other
60side with harsh accusations, and dealing with people and theirwishes and intentions very rudely! Look how easy it is for himto make a mistake in all this and disadvantage his position!
The peaceful person, even if he resigns from his job, does socalmly. When he finds himself unable to cooperate with hiscolleagues, he withdraws quietly without causing them anytrouble and without disturbing the atmosphere around them.But if the restless person resigns he wants to disrupt the wholeworld because of his resignation. And if it does not cause anoutcry, he gets angry and says: "How can I resign andeverything remains the same? Why hasn't so-and-so or so-and-so become angry in support of me? And why haven't the othersacted like me?!"
Through his conduct, the calm person is an example to others.They learn peacefulness and good behaviour from him, and gainexperience in how to deal with problems and annoying people.They remember the words of the Apostle: "Who is wise andunderstanding among you? Let him show by good conduct thathis works are done in the meekness of wisdom. But if you havebitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lieagainst the truth. This wisdom does not descend from above,but is earthly, sensual, demonic. For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there. " (James3:13-16).
Saint Paul says in dealing with the mistakes of others,"Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who arespiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness". (Gal. 6:1).
61CHAPTER 3Causes of RestlessnessCauses from Within:
-
The Fiery Temperament - The Depressive
-
The Way of Thinking
-
Exhausted Nerves
-
Psychological DisordersExternal Causes:
-
Causes Connected with the Body
-
Causes Connected with the Mind
-
Causes Connected with the Soul
62There are many reasons for a person to lose his calmness: somecome from within the soul and others are external.Causes From Within
These include the person's temperament, whether he is of a fieryor subdued nature, or particularly sensitive. It might also be hisway of thinking, which might work against him, or his nerves,which might be exhausted. In addition to this, there are othercauses such as psychological disorders and struggles like fear,confusion, depression, lust and anger. Yet another reason forrestlessness is a liking of causing noisy disturbances.Temperament
A person's temperament has its first effect on his calmness orlack of calmness. There are people who have a peaceful natureand others who are excitable, and others in between the two.The calm nature does not get overexcited. If it finds somethingover-excited it calms it down. But the excitable nature getsworked up for no reason! This excitable temperament they calla 'fiery' nature. It does not like peacefulness at all, and cannotlive with it. If it finds a calm atmosphere it soon sets it ablaze,stirs it up and provokes it. You will never find someone whohas this temperament calm. His restlessness does not have anexternal cause, it arises from his natural disposition. He isalways irritable, highly strung, tense and excitable.
63One's nature may be continually pessimistic. This person maylook dejectedly at everything and expect the worst on everyoccasion. He is suspicious of the intentions of all those aroundhim, he has misgivings about what they are up to and is afraid ofwhat they are doing. He may end up in a state that they call a'persecution complex', and thus he loses his calmness because ofhis pessimism and negative expectations.
A person with such a nature imagines that his pessimism hasvarious causes. He loses his peace of mind if the date is the13th or any multiple of it, whether it is the Arabic or Christiancalendar, and he keeps on saying, "Oh God, help me". Thisalso happens when he has to repeat this number, for an address,or identity card, or seat number or bus or telephone number, orwhen his age reaches any multiple of it. He also becomesrestless if he hears the hoot of an owl or if he meets someonewhom he thinks it is bad fortune to meet!! Or if he meets aperson whose name is connected with some incident whichcaused him distress. Likewise, he loses his calmness if heanticipates bad luck from reading what it says in the 'Your Stars'column in the newspapers or magazines.
You try to calm him down but your effort goes in vain! Thesethings which are deeply rooted in his nature cause himcontinuous anxiety and disturb his peace of mind. They cannotbe outweighed by any thought or persuasion.
A person may lose his calmness because of being too sensitive.The person who is, for example, very sensitive about his dignityor his rights might see the slightest word or action from othersas an infringement of his rights or a slight to his dignity.
64You see him getting disturbed from within. His nerves areaffected and he may get angry. As a result of all this he loseshis inner peace and may behave towards people in a disruptiveway.Way of Thinking
There is a type of person who thinks in a calm way, whileanother thinks in a confused or angry way, which will never leadhim to a solution, but only causes him to lose his inner peace.Here the question of thinking positively or thinking negativelycomes into it. The one who thinks positively about everythingthat happens and all that he hears about thinks calmly within,and makes everything pass peacefully. But the one whosethoughts concentrate on the negative aspects of things, loses hiscalmness, his thoughts grow restless and he shifts restlesslyfrom one idea to another.
Besides negative thinking, a person's thoughts may be troubledby doubts or because the conclusions which he has arrived atare wearing him out. What a lot of wrong conclusions canspring from an anxious disposition; and there may not be ashadow of truth in any of them. You might even say in surpriseto someone who is like that, "Why do you think in this way?!Why do you interpret words in this way?"
It is because of a person's state that his thoughts work againsthim. It is his way of thinking which wears him out. He needsanother person to correct his train of thought for him so that hecan think in a calm way that soothes him.
65One of the troublesome ways of thinking is that of exaggeratingproblems, by attaching too much significance to the troublesthat come along, supposing them to have unfavourable anddangerous results and by having a fertile imagination forsurmising possible dangers. A person who exaggerates thuslives in fear and loses his calmness.Exhausted Nerves
Tranquil nerves make the person think calmly and peacefully.But nervous exhaustion leads to loss of tranquillity, intoleranceand a susceptibility to anger and nervousness. This exhaustionmay arise from physical tiredness or from illness orpsychological reasons, or from too much thinking or readingover a long period without rest. It is therefore best not to enterinto heated discussions when in these types of situations and tonot think of solving problems with exhausted nerves. Those inpositions of leadership, for example, ought not to decide thefates of others when in this condition.
If you find someone exhausted do not argue with him, becausehe may not be able to bear the discussion and may get angry,and also do not insist on him responding to a specific request,because he may not be able to bear to be pressed, and may thusrefuse simply because he does not have the strength to think ofan answer. He may then use harsh words in a desire to end theconversation.
If a husband returns tired from work, for example, it is not inthe wife's interest to present him with subjects which require
66thought, while he is in need of rest. If she confronts him at thattime he may react angrily towards her. If he does, she mightwrongly think that he is in a bad mood. It would be better forher to realise that she had simply chosen an unsuitable time totalk to him.
Among the other causes of a person losing his calmness arepsychological troubles and disorders. Of these we mightmention the following:Fear and Confusion
If a person is afraid, he loses his calmness and if he loses hiscalmness he becomes afraid. In a state of fear a personimagines problems and dangers, whether they exist or not, andthus becomes disturbed. The more he thinks about thesedangers, the greater his fear and confusion become and heimagines the worst, yet all his fears may be his own doing.
The calm person does not become disturbed however much thecircumstances around him get troubled. He is just like thehouse built on rock of which the Lord said: "and the raindescended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat onthat house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock."(Matt. 7:25).
Peter the Apostle was thrown into prison, while Herod wasdetermined to kill him. Nevertheless he slept so soundly even insuch circumstances, that the angel who came to save him had toprod him in the side to wake him (Acts 12:3-7).
67On the other hand, the person who is afraid and disturbed, loseshis peace of mind. In his fear and troubled state he is incapableof healthy, calm thinking. Things before him becomecomplicated and seem to be irresolvable. and he loses hiscalmness completely. To regain this calmness he needs outsidehelp and a solution to be found for him. If he discovers asolution, his fear will decrease and subside.
Prayer and seeking advice will benefit him in this state.Through prayer he will feel the divine power solving hisproblems for him, so he does not fear. Through asking advicehe will find a wise and loving heart beside him, presenting himwith a solution and dealing with him in faith; so he does not fearbut grows calm.
Perhaps some may want to ask about those who fear death. Inactual fact, someone who fears death is more likely to be afraidof his fate after death, and where he will go. But the believerwho trusts in God's love, and who always repents over bigthings and small, is not afraid of death but rather says with theApostle Paul: "having a desire to depart and be with Christ,which is far better." (Phil. 1:23). Thus we find that the martyrslooked forward to death joyfully without being troubled, andwere very peaceful at the hour of their death.
This does not mean that there was something wrong when someof the saints spoke of death with a certain fear, but if they did soit was out of a kind of humility, so that their hearts should notbe raised too high because of their godliness and worthiness towear a crown.
68Desires or Lusts
Saint Augustine was right when he said: "I sat on the summit ofthe world when I felt within that I did not desire anything orfear anything."
Someone who runs after his desires is exhausted and enslavedby them. They cause confusion within him, and he keeps onthinking of how he can achieve what his heart desires. How canhe attain them? And what are the difficulties which stand in hisway? Who are his rivals and how can he triumph over them?Or perhaps what tricks can he use to achieve his desires? Thisis how lust disturbs him from within and makes him lose hiscalmness in his thinking, his efforts and his feelings.
Also the scope of desires is never-ending. As soon as one hasbeen fulfilled, others appear and so on !!
We see tranquillity in the hearts and thoughts of ascetics, monksand hermits because they have rid themselves of the pressure ofdesires and become free within their souls.Anger and Nervousness
Nervousness in relation to restlessness is both a cause and aneffect. The person who loses his nerves loses his calmness too.As once a person has lost his calmness it is really very easy forhim to be angry and speak with obvious irritability.
69The calm person, however, does not become influenced soquickly or get worked up or exasperated. He deals with peopleand problems calmly, with a cheerful face. His inner peaceappears also in his outward behaviour.A Liking for Causing A Noisy Disturbance
There are some individuals who can only live in a state ofclamour and cannot bear quietness at all. If they go somewheretheir commotion precedes them, and they announce theirpresence with their loud voices and noisy company. If they sitin a quiet place they soon grow bored and leave it, and if theyare with people who are silent, one of them shouts, saying tothem, "Why are you sitting so quietly?! Is this a sadoccasion?!"
They constantly look for problems and excitement. If theybecome members of any club or association, they have to maketheir presence felt; something has to happen, a difficulty has tobe raised and the atmosphere charged, they then feel that it hassome interest for them. If they sit in a meeting they have toraise their voices and search for a subject to object to.
They expand any difficulty and provoke crises for the mosttrivial reasons. If they are put in a position of authority theywear out their subordinates with so many orders andprohibitions, too many checks, and by keeping them occupiedwith unimportant affairs. The whole world has to be disruptedif they have to investigate something and if they find a mistakethey explode in furry.
70The existence of a calm atmosphere obviously depends on one'slove of peacefulness. Those who do not love peace show it onevery occasion: their wedding celebrations are noisy affairs andcan be heard from afar, with their loud voices, singing andwhistling and perhaps even accompanied by the bangs offireworks going off. Even their funerals are noisy affairs. Thewhole town or district has to be turned upside down if one ofthem dies!! They imagine that they are not honouring the deadif they do not spend long nights in weeping and wailing in loudvoices for them. All this is simply in the desire that othersshould share their affliction.
Sharing sorrowful emotions is necessary, but to overdo it is todestroy any chance of real calmness. There are ways ofexpressing one's mutual support which do not involve a lot ofnoise and which are characterised by peacefulness. Sometimessilent grief and quiet tears are a deeper expression of sentimentthan loud wailing.
We have talked of the importance of inner reasons for losingone's calmness, and will now go on to speak about thosereasons which come from outside.External Causes
There are external factors which may make the person lose hispeace of mind and calmness, his smile and cheerfulness, his joyand happiness. The spiritual person, however, can triumph overexternal reasons, as we will explain later. Perhaps themost important external reasons are to do with the body, thesenses, and with the mind and the spirit.
71a. Against The Senses
There are several reasons for the body to lose its calmnessbecause the senses have become exhausted, by this we meanreasons that are particularly connected with our homes, such asthe sounds, lights, colours, traffic, telephones etc.Environs:
1.
Overcrowding in the city, any city, bombards the senses
with noise and bustle, especially in the shopping streets of thecity, where the people are crowded together unnaturally. Thisis also true of the places where there are many factories,workshops, universities, schools and hospitals (or what they callthe 'service sector' in the city).
2.
Following on from this there is the vast number of traffic
routes and all the noise and racket which they cause. This isespecially so in the periods of peak hours and ending in variousoffices. They call this the 'rush hour', when thousands ofemployees, students and business people leave work, either bytheir private cars or in search of buses, trams or taxis. At thistime the bustle of the city appears at its greatest and it is thiswhich exhausts those who love peace and makes them lose thetranquillity of their senses.
72The traffic may be brought to a halt because of the great crushof people, especially in large overcrowded cities, with all thatthis entails in the way of problems, upsets, the closing of somepeople's departments and wasted time.
3.
Because of all this some people prefer to live in the
suburbs. The population of the city of London exceeds 12million, and so some of its inhabitants prefer to live outside thecity in the areas known as 'suburbia' (this applies to Cairo too).If people are unable to live in the suburbs, then they might atleast spend the weekends there for a period of rest andrecuperation far away from the noise of the city.
4.
In search for peace, some cities have made laws which
prohibit the building of homes over the whole area. In somecities they only allow a land owner to build on a third or aquarter of the area of his land, and leave the rest, for example,as a garden. Thus the houses can be spaced out and there canbe some greenery which helps calm the nerves and the spirit andwhich provides areas where there is less crowding and noise.Some cities restrict the height of dwellings to perhaps just 12metres (3 or 4 stories). The quieter areas of the city areexamples of these residential districts.
In view of the increase in the price of land at the present time,the vast number of inhabitants and the housing crisis, thesekinds of comfortable, quiet homes are hard to come by, exceptfor those who are financially able to afford it and who also lovepeace and quiet.
73In order to remedy this shortage, some cities are trying toallocate special areas within the city to be public parks as placesof refreshment for the people. These parks, however, in spite oftheir healthy and scenic aspects, are often noisy places becausepeople tend to see them as places for recreation rather thenrelaxation.
5.
Due to this, peace lovers resort to the Monasteries
where the desert is quiet. Even though the Monasteries in thedesert are essentially tranquil places, they lose their peacefulnessbecause of the large number of people visiting them. It istherefore necessary to lay down firm regulations for preservingthe peace of the Monasteries. There is a great differencebetween a large party of 50 people going to a monastery just foran outing, to visit and receive a blessing, causing a good deal ofnoise because they are unfamiliar with the calmness there, and afew individuals going to a monastery to spend a period of peaceand worship, and who stay in retreat houses.
In order to preserve their calm atmosphere, the monasteries tryto group the visitors' areas far away from the monks' cells, andfrom the retreat houses, which helps the visitors to becomeaccustomed to the quietness.
6.
On the other hand, the monks who desire even greater
quietness go to live in isolated cells and desert caves. It is inthese places, far away from the bustle of the guests and evenfrom the other monks' living quarters, that they are able toattain a degree of solitude and peace which does not exist in thecommunity of monks.
74Machinery:
Something else which disturbs the peace is machinery, whicheven if it facilitates the world's production and help to spreadcivilisation have nevertheless made the world lose much of itstranquillity. The quietness of sounds has been lost and this hashappened so quickly that the calmness of the nerves has beenlost.
Machines in our mechanical age work quickly and accuratelyand require their operators to be just as quick and precise.Because of this, their nerves are always keyed up in case theymake a mistake or the machine does something dangerous,which would affect their production, their livelihood, their paybonuses and reports.
Often machines are to blame for the problems ofunemployment. One machine may be able to do more workthan 20 or 30 or even 50 workers.
The appearance of machines at the beginning of theRenaissance, five centuries ago, was known in history as the"Industrial Revolution". But how much greater is thedevelopment of technology in our present age!
Unemployment undoubtedly affects the peacefulness of theworld, since there exists a class made up of a vast number ofworkers who are anxious about their fate and livelihood.Mahatma Gandhi used to hate the use of machines and calledhis people to work with their hands.
75There is a big difference between the age in which the peasantused to water his field from a water wheel, calmly and happilyfollowing the water as it ran peacefully through the field, andthe age in which the water descends in a fast, forceful jet whichhe runs panting behind in order to transfer it from one trough toanother, before it overflows and is drowned by the water.
We do not want at this point to discuss the subject oftechnology from the economic point of view; this is not the aimof the book in your hands. Its aim is simply to show the effectsthat machines can have upon calmness, from the aspect of theirnoise and effect upon the senses, and from the aspect of theunemployment which they can cause and the effect which thiscan have upon disturbing spiritual peace.
In addition to this, machines which pollute the environment withsmoke and fumes, and the adverse effect that this can have uponhealth can also make the individual lose his tranquillity.Sounds, Lights and Colours
Loud sounds disturb peace, whether they come from trains,cars, alarm clocks, motorcycles, aeroplanes or loudspeakers atparties and meetings, even the sounds of people passing in thestreets and the sounds of the sellers in the over populatedsuburbs.
The clamour of sound in the city makes people lose thecalmness of their senses, especially if these sounds are loud andinvasive and continually unchecked.
76Even in people's ordinary conversations, there are some whotalk quietly so that you can hardly hear their voice, and otherswho cause such a racket when they talk that the place loses itspeace and their listeners feel as if they are caught up in anargument or a fight.
The calm approach to conversation means that the personspeaks at the level required by his listener, without raising hisvoice unnecessarily. This is what calm people do. Peace loversdo not feel relaxed when loud or sharp voices are used as thisdisturbs their senses.
The recluse Saint Arsanious, when he heard the sound of reedsmoved by the wind, said: "What is this earthquake?" because hisears had become acutely sensitive, , being accustomed to a calmatmosphere.
Telephones then can sometimes be a reason for making somepeople lose their calmness. If someone uses them too much orfor too long, telephones can make him lose his awareness of thevalue of his time, or make him feel that he has lost his peace ofmind or that his actions are unproductive. Therefore those whowish to spend time quietly should keep far away fromtelephones and avoid using them, or use them sparingly, onlyfor emergencies.
Colours also have a certain effect on the soul besidesinfluencing the one who looks at them. The green colour, forexample, is a peaceful colour, as is light blue, and comes incontrast to the colours like red, which can be glaring unless it is
77simply part of a pattern and just used to give it a particularbeauty.
This explains why many people choose colours for the walls oftheir homes that are restful to the eyes, and the same goes forthe colours of their furniture and clothes; and choose flowers ofsoothing colours for their gardens.
Just as we mentioned colours, we can also mention lights.Strong lights irritate and tire the eyes and nerves. Strongheadlights on cars, for example, strain the eyes of driverscoming in the opposite direction. We might perhaps see somestreets in the big cities fitted with softer lights in a specialcolour which is kinder to the eyes, a kind of yellowish colour.
Also churches, when they are lit by candles, have a calmeratmosphere which is more conducive to awe and peace, thanwhen they are lit by the glare of artificial lights.
We have spoken of the factors that work against calmness ofthe senses, let us move on to another factor which disturbspeace:b.Against The Calmness of The Spirit
1. There are many factors which disturb calmness of the spiritand these include the mistakes of others. Their behaviour maybe hurtful, worrying or irritating to the individual and result in aloss of tranquillity. Their mistakes may be actually harmful.Perhaps they may cause fights or struggles or make
78attempts to annoy the other. Thus the person can lose histranquillity, because of a quarrelsome neighbour, or an annoyingcolleague at work, or even at church. This occurs becausepeople's mistakes have caused him harm or put him in a state ofconstant strain or tension because he is anticipating problems asa result of these mistakes.
The teacher may lose his calmness because of a pupil'sbehaviour. A father or mother may lose their calmness becauseof their child's errors. The behaviour of certain individualsamong people might harm the peace of the entire country.
2.
A person may lose his calmness because he is living with
people who are not calm. If he lives with a person who isanxious, disturbed or afraid, he may be affected by that person'smistakes. That person's fear or disturbed state may also bepassed on to him. On the other hand, living with calm peoplebrings calmness to the spirit.
There are many psychological aspects that a person absorbsfrom others, good and bad. One of the famous men of letterswrote, "Tell me who your friend is and I will tell you who youare."
Therefore it is not unusual for you to feel upset if you remainfor a long time in a place where there has been a disturbancebecause of what you hear of other people's conversations. It isequally likely if you live with a person who is very sceptical,that his misgivings will flow into your heart and thoughtswithout your intending it.
793.
Another element that causes loss of peace is the news
and the media. Look at how often the radio and televisionbroadcasts, newspapers, magazines and publishers presentupsetting news that disturbs people. It affects their thoughts andsenses so that some of them start to imagine that the world isgoing to end soon, or that disasters are about to happen.
These news reports may follow in rapid succession, so that nosooner has the person recovered from listening to one piece ofnews than another equally upsetting follows it. Thus theindividual lives in a state of constant tension.
There are journalists who think that to stir-up the people is thesign of successful news broadcasting. They therefore choosedramatic titles that arouse or news items that provoke,irrespective of the effect they might have on the hearts of thepeople!
The same applies to the news people relate to each other in theirconversations: their tales of problems, adversities and pains, ona general level, or on the individual and family level. There aresome who relate such things so dramatically that they conveytheir emotion to the listener and he gets upset too.People live in a state of constant tug-of-war, being pulled thisway and that by a succession of news reports. If someonewants to live quietly he should try his utmost to get as far awayas he can from upsetting news, or to keep its influence over himunder control.
4.
Personal problems are the most serious thing that make
someone lose his peace of mind.
80Young people's minds are disturbed by the slightest problem.Adults, however may be upset by a problem which seems to beirresolvable, if they then arrive at a solution their mind againbecomes calm.
The restless person wants all people around him to bethoroughly upset if a problem ever occurs, and he may say, "Iwon't let this matter go by just like that! I know what I'll do!!".It may well be that his rude behaviour causes another problemworse than the original one. A person may lose his calmness inthe face of a personal problem or one that affects people ingeneral, such as bad transport for example, or a boring routineor economic problems and rising prices.
We can cite a third kind of factor which disturbs peace which is:c. Against The Calmness of The Soul
Sin disturbs the person's spiritual calmness. As the DivineInspiration said: "There is no peace," says the LORD, "for thewicked." (Is. 48:22) and, " But the wicked are like the troubledsea, When it cannot rest, Whose waters cast up mire and dirt."There is no peace," Says my God, "for the wicked." (Is.57:20-21).
The sinner lives in an internal struggle which gives him nopeace. He loses his peace of mind before the sin, whenplanning it and thinking it through, and after the sin he loses it
81because of fear: fear that the sin may be discovered, fear ofpunishment and fear of getting a bad reputation.
Cain lost his peace after he killed his brother Abel, and said:"My punishment is greater than I can bear!...anyone who findsme will kill me." (Gen. 4:13-14).
The factors which disturb calmness from within are mostlyconnected to sins or faults like lust, fear and lack of faith . Thespiritual person is always characterised by his tranquillity. Inthe forefront of the fruits of the Spirit are "love, joy, peace.."(Gal. 5:22) and with joy and peace there is calmness.
Something else which makes the sinner lose his calmness is fearof judgement. Striving to live the best life of all gives thechildren of God hope in a happy eternity and makes them"rejoicing in hope," (Rom. 12:12) as they listen to the words ofSaint John the Apostle: "abide in Him, that when He appears,we may have confidence and not be ashamed before Him at Hiscoming." (1 John 2:28) But sinners live in fear whenever theythink of their eternity. As Saint Paul the Apostle said, "It is afearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." (Heb.10:31)
The spiritual person has a good relationship with God, but thesinner is always caught up in a fight or struggle with God,which makes him lose his calmness. Talking about death,eternity or judgement disturbs him a great deal; these are wordswhich he cannot bear to hear. Sometimes he runs away fromthem, but when they catch up with him and press upon him, hisheart grows dispirited.
82There is another spiritual fault which disturbs calmness:this is the suspicious restless conscience. Whoever has thisconscience can never live in calmness.
This conscience "strain out a gnat" (Matt. 23), and imaginesevil where it is not, or enlarges the weight of sin beyond what itactually is.
This conscience lives always in suffering, in doubt and remorse.It is not calm from within.
83CHAPTER 4How We Can Obtain Calmness
1.
Love of calmness
2.
The calmness of nature
3.
Tranquillity of the heart
4.
Don't be easily provoked
5.
Faith
6.
Living with calm people
7.
Joy and cheerfulness
8.
Humility and gentleness
9.
Exercising calmness
84There are many ways of obtaining calmness, but at the top ofthe list we must put the love of calmness and the convictionabout its importance.1.Love of Calmness
You cannot live in peace unless you are convinced that it is theright way to live. This is because your convictionunquestionably affects your behaviour. You must then beconvinced that settling affairs or solving problems is notachieved by force, worry, by getting upset or by fear or despair.On the contrary, only the calm person can think in a balancedway and solve his problems and behave well. Once he loses hiscalmness, he becomes disturbed and cannot find a solution.
There are some people to whom distressing news or eventsbrings on ill health, for example, such problems as diabetes, highblood pressure, stomach ulcers or nervous damage, whichcauses them to need psychiatrists and general practitioners.
Their lack of tranquillity may last a long time during which theybecome the object of people's pity! Besides harming themselvesthose who are restless can harm others too.
If you are convinced, then, of the harmful effects of a lack ofcalmness, try always to be calm, and follow the ways which willlead you to peace. Know that the thoughts of the person whothinks calmly are sound and strong and will enable him tounderstand, draw conclusions, grasp a subject and solve his
85problems. The tranquil heart gives peaceful solutions and doesnot cause problems.2. The Calmness of Nature
Nature, being calm, conveys its calmness to the spirit, and thecalmness of nature aids the calmness of the individual'scharacter. It is on account of this that people go to parks andgardens, where beautiful natural scenes soothe their nerves. Ifthey are not able to do this regularly, as a matter of course, atleast they can do it on holidays from work. Some people cantravel to a rural areas with beautiful scenery. Many people, atthe very least, like to put flowers in their homes in specialcontainers or decorate the walls of their homes with somepeaceful natural scenes.
Some people choose their homes in quiet areas and live in theless crowded suburbs where there is not so much in the way ofmachines, vehicles, noise of traffic and noise of factories, shopsand such like to disturb the peace. As we have mentionedabove, some suburbs insist that building should not be carriedout over the whole area, and restrict the height of dwellings sothat around each house there can be a garden with trees andflowers, to give the place beauty and so each person can enjoy asufficient amount of fresh air and beautiful natural views whichbring calmness to the soul. If there is no overcrowding, noise isdecreased and this is another factor that aids tranquillity.
86Those who are unable to live in more peaceful surroundings areadvised at least to take breaks fromtheir environment, in search of calmness for their nerves.
I read once during the war, that Eisenhower, when he waspresident of America, went to spend a holiday at one of thelakes where they took a photograph of him fishing. He wasrelaxing despite his massive responsibilities, for he knew wellthat calmness of the nerves would help him to be relaxed inbearing his responsibilities, and would give vitality to histhoughts and tranquillity to his soul.
We recall that Our Lord Jesus used to take his disciples tosecluded places. Sometimes he would take them to fields andorchards, sometimes he would talk to them on the hills or at theseashore. The miracle of the five loaves and two fish took placein a secluded spot. I wish someone would study the subject ofnature and Jesus' relationship with it.The Monasteries
The Desert Fathers have always lived in the peace of the desert,and thus have lived peacefully, without any external factors toarouse or disturb them. Therefore their dispositions havealways been tranquil and they have had the serenity of thoughtand heart to be able to contemplate deeply on how to deal withsituations. Thus they have been able to give calm advice toanyone who has sought their guidance. They have put thismonastic principle before themselves: "With stillness of thebody we acquire tranquillity of the soul".
87A monk who did not find sufficient peace in the monastic orderused to resort to a life of solitude in a cave or hill dwellingwhere he lives with tranquil senses and calm emotions. That iswhy some Fathers call the monastic life, 'the life of silence'. TheFathers have always preferred the calm of the night to the bustleof the day. Their prayers in the quietness of the night can bedeeper and more contemplative than they are in the glare of theday. Saint Isaac the Syrian said, "Night is set aside for the actof prayer", and the writer of the Psalms says: "Praise the Lord,all you servants of the Lord who minister by night in the houseof the Lord. Lift up your hands in the sanctuary and praise theLord." (Ps. 134) I remember that I wrote in my diary one nightin my cave in the mountains (perhaps it was in 1960), thefollowing couple of lines:"The peace of the night is music and secrets whispering to me,the sound of the wind gently pouring the melody into my ear".
Unfortunately some cities have spoilt the calm of the night andinstead have made the night a time of noisy parties andnightclubs with all their entertainment, and in so doing theyhave removed night time far away from peace and from God.
Therefore, for the sake of creating peace, the monasteries haveset up retreat houses. The intention is that young people canspend a quiet period there for meditation and prayer, far fromthe noise of the city and far from the stimulations which makethe soul rise and fall. During this period they can recharge theirinner calmness which will revitalise their spiritual strength andfortify their hearts.
88It is important for those who go to the monasteries for thepurpose of finding tranquillity should not cause the monasteriesto lose their peacefulness. The visit is not simply for a changeof atmosphere or to receive a blessing from the holy places, butrather for the spiritual benefit which it can bring, and forspending time in prayer reading, meditation and examining thesoul. It is better if one goes alone, and not with a group ofpeople to spend time discussing and chatting with them!!
The visitor to the monastery will benefit from following aspiritual programme and therefore not disturb the peacefulnessof the monastery.3. Tranquillity of The Heart
The wide-open heart can accept many things, without gettingannoyed at them.
The tranquil heart produces calm thoughts and also calmemotions. It never thinks of the difficulties of the problem butonly how to solve them. Someone who is overwhelmed by hispains becomes exhausted by them, but someone who thinks ofhow to solve his problems, works his way out of his pain andrelaxes as soon as he reaches a solution. If he does not find away out of his difficulty, then he leaves it to God, trusting thatGod has many solutions. With faith, the heart grows calm,trusting in the work of God.
The important matter is not the problem but the way in whichyou deal with it and your response to the problem. What
89matters is how much you let yourself become upset by theproblem and the kind of effect it has upon you. Is it affectingyou deeply and troubling you or is it floating on the surface ofyour thoughts without you allowing it to trouble or pre-occupyyou? What is your reaction to the problem and your innerresponse?
The tranquil soul faces things calmly, no matter howcomplicated they are. If we get disturbed, then everything infront of us gets disturbed. And if we are calm then everythingin our view appears calm. So the type of interaction betweenourselves and the problem is the basis of our feelings. Therestless soul is always pessimistic and expects the worst, but thecalm person receives the most difficult news with composureand deals with the matter calmly, because he is used to behavingthis way.
If you are secure within, you will be fortified against anydisturbance, like a person who is immunised against a specificvirus. Even if the germ enters the body, it will not harm theperson. You will be like this. As long as you live in the worldyou cannot escape problems, so the practical solution is to trainyourself to rise above the provocation that they can cause.
You will come to realise fully that getting upset does not solveproblems, but that they are solved by calm, balanced thoughtwhich arrives at practical, and feasible solutions.
We want tranquillity of the heart in order that we obtainoutward calmness in dealing with practical matters and in ourdaily behaviour. All kinds of outer peace which we can practiseor benefit from will contribute to our inner peace.
904. Don't Be Easily Provoked
Accept everything calmly, no matter how troublesome it is. Donot let external causes arouse you on the inside. Don't be easilyincited and don't be volatile or easily manipulated. Be calm andtrain yourself for internal peace and tranquillity of heart.
There is a kind of person who, if you tell him some news, showssigns of panic in his features; his eyes, his expression, his voice,so much so that you say to him, "Don't worry, nothing'shappened..." or you leave the conversation unfinished.
But you must not be like this, for Our Lord Jesus said: "Let notyour heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." (John 14:27).
Do not be easily affected, and if you do become upset, put alimit to it and try to calm yourself. If you throw a stone at amountain you will not shake it, nor will it be affected by thestone. But if you throw the same stone at a pane of glass, theglass will be smashed and shattered into pieces. Be like themountain, not like the glass. I want you to be strong, resilientmountains, not easily shaken, in fact completely unshakeable.
A lit match set against some straw quickly sets it on fire, while aflame placed in water does not burn but is extinguished. Whichof these are you like?
915. Faith
In the midst of problems a person can be calm by means offaith; as long as he believes that God exists, that He upholds,directs and protects and that He also judges the wrong doers(Ps. 146:7). If he believes that God will certainly intervene withlove and create a solution for him, or intervene with his justiceand raise the oppression from him. If he puts before him thewords of the Lord: "I will not leave you nor forsake you."(Josh. 1:5).
He leaves everything to God and is neither afraid nor troubled,trusting in God's actions on his behalf.
Those who believe in the action of God and His protectionnever get upset. Their reliance on God gives them inner peace.In fact, their faith makes them see good in everything; evenwhat appears to be distressing or troublesome, they believe thatGod will certainly change it to good. In their trust in God theylive a life of total submission and inner peace.
The meaning of faith is not that the person adopts a passivestance. On the contrary, he does all that he can, without gettingupset, putting the matter in God's hands right from the start andputting before himself the words of the Bible: "The things whichare impossible with men are possible with God." (Luke 18:27)As long as God sees everything and wants the best foreveryone, and is able to bring this about, why lose one's calm?!
If someone loses his tranquillity of heart as a result of problems,there must be a flaw in his heart that needs to be
92treated. This flaw might be a lack of faith that has given rise todoubt, then fear and then confusion. This is until he enters intothe element of faith - faith in strong prayer and its effectiveness.Prayer, to whomever believes in it, cures fear and disturbance.
With prayer you feel that you are not alone, you are surroundedwith divine power helping you, therefore you become calm andfeel secure.6. Living with Calm People
If one lives with calm people one tends to gain their calmness.And if one lives with disturbed or volatile people one tends tobe affected by their emotions. Thus psychological disorders canbe transferred by influence through living in close proximity. Inthis way, fear or doubt or anxiety is transferred from one personto another.
On the other hand living with calm people gives trust,reassurance and peace. You might read some disturbing newsand become worried, and then you meet someone calm and findthat he meets this same news with complete faith, absolutelysure that nothing awful will happen at all. And as he explains itto you, his assurance begins to rub off on you and your mindbecomes calm.
If you live with calm people you can absorb their faith andtranquillity and obtain peace for yourself from their inner peace.You can also use their calmness as an example andmodel and try to emulate this because you like them and theymake you feel comfortable. And you will also become
93accustomed to their way of thinking when faced with problemsand difficulties. You learn how the mind can grasp a problemand digest it from their intelligence, and how things can beunderstood and problems solved and the best way of dealingwith them can be found. As well as this, you will learn fromtheir faith, from their patience, endurance and ability to holdout. Thus you can learn the practical sources of calmness fromliving with them.
Living with calm people is the best kind of tranquilliser: they arecalming, peaceful souls. We can add to this a calming FatherConfessor to whom anxious souls come and confess and obtainrelief. He is also a means of obtaining calmness, throughmeeting with him you relieve yourself of a burden and becomecalm.7. Joy and Cheerfulness
The spirit of joy and a cheerful face gives the person mentalcalmness and relaxation, and wards off trouble and depression.However charged and noisy the atmosphere, the person whohas inner joy and cheerfulness can make everyone laugh with hisgentle humour, or at least make them smile, and with his joyremove the atmosphere of tension. We recall here the words ofthe Bible: "a time to weep and a time to laugh ".
Yes, there is a time for laughter, perhaps to remove tensionfrom people, or from the individual himself, or to defuse anger.
94If someone hears an unkind word from a person, instead ofgetting angry, he can reply with humour, and so the two canlaugh and the anger disappears. Thus the joyful person is lovedby all, and always lives in peace and wherever he goes hisdealings with people are peaceful.
You find that people who are characterised by joy have calmnature. It is not easy to provoke or anger them. They are notonly calm themselves, but are able to calm others too.Joyfulness may sometimes be one of the elements of "the gentleanswer" which turns away wrath (Prov. 15: 1).
There are some people who always read the jokes first in thepapers, because it makes them feel cheerful and calm so that theless pleasant news does not affect them so much.
You can find a type of person who makes you smile even beforehe speaks, because you are already expecting him to saysomething funny or something that will make you happy. Youfeel particularly happy when you meet this type of person at thebeginning of your day.
May you all have smiling, cheerful faces which spread serenityto others. People cannot bear to see a person with a gloomy ordepressed face. It makes them lose their calmness and innerpeace.
958. Humility and Gentleness
Calmness is one of the natural characteristics of the gentleperson, The gentle person is calm, because "A bruised reed Hewill not break, And smoking flax He will not quench," (Matt.12:20). He does not get angry or annoyed or raise his voicebecause he is calm.
The gentle person has a kind heart, he does not fight or argue,he is not "self-seeking" (1 Cor. 13:5), he does not resist evil(Matt. 5:39) and even in his discussions he is calm, notinterrupting when someone else is talking, not getting annoyedor upset.
The gentle person is pleasant natured, and not harsh or rude inany way. He does not put pressure on other people, or insist,he makes things easy, not seeking his own comfort but ratherthat of others, which is why he is calm.
The gentle person is tolerant, for example, he does not answerback or hurt another or insult him, he does not talk down tohim, but talks calmly with him. He does not rebuke or condemnanyone, but expresses his opinion with strength of conviction,not with pride or irritability.
For all these reasons, the characteristics of the gentle person arecompletely in accord with those of the calm person. If youacquire gentleness you will automatically have thecharacteristics of calmness. So try to acquire the quality ofgentleness and its traits, and train yourself to be gentle. If youdo, you will certainly arrive at calmness.
96Calmness is also one of the features of the humble person. Thehumble person does not make anyone angry or allow himself tobe angered by anyone, and so deals peacefully with people.
Since he is characterised by a humility of spirit, this humilitycannot have the feature of sharpness or anger because theywould conflict with it. Rather, you find that the humble personis gentle in his behaviour, calm when he talks and not disruptiveat all.
The humble person always finds himself at fault and blameshimself for everything. By not blaming anyone else, instead ofmaking an issue of a possible offence from others, he reduces itby letting it pass by, out of the contriteness of his heart. Insteadof fighting or entering into conflict he remains calm.
The humble person asks for blessing for everyone, thus he livesin love with all, dealing with them gently and peacefully. Healso bears everything, without making a fuss on account ofdefending himself. Whatever harm befalls him he says, "this isbecause of my sins", and then he is silent and does not rebelagainst it. He therefore lives in peace with people.
The basic reason for loss of calmness is being self centred, toomuch concentration on the self. Humility is being selfless, beingremote from oneself. In humility there is self-denial, and anyconcern over one's 'honour' and 'rights' (which are the causes ofa person losing his tranquillity if he is not humble) is kept at adistance. As long as the humble person is unconcerned aboutmatters which relate to his personal honour,
97he does not lose his calmness because of these things, theysimply pass by.
Also, the humble person does not surround himself with thenoise and fuss that those who are eager for praise are so keenon. Read about the reasons for loss of calmness and comparethem with humility and its characteristics. You will then seehow humility contributes to calmness, and you will also see thatwhoever loses his humility loses him calmness.9.Exercising Calmness
1.
Get yourself into the habit of entering and leaving
calmly. Open your door and shut it quietly without causing asound. Move your furniture and belongings inside your roomquietly.
2.
Let your walking be graceful, without any running,
without any fuss or awkwardness, without letting your shoescause a sound, like those whose shoes announce their arrivallong before they appear. It says in 'Paradise of the Fathers',"Tread lightly with a soft sound".
3.
Get into the habit of talking quietly, not rushing your
words or sharpening your voice, do not get into the habit ofshouting and using a loud voice. Let your words be peaceful.If you feel like saying a harsh or rude word, hold your tongueand don't say it. Think of its awful consequences.
984.
If you write an angry letter, do not send it in a hurry.
Leave it for a day or two then read it again and changewhatever needs to be changed in it.
5.
Do not obey any idea which urges you to act quickly.
Wait until you have examined it calmly from every aspect.
6.
Train yourself not to rush and plunge in hastily. Know
well that impatience indicates the person's lack of peace inside.The calm person is patient. If someone gets worked up, heloses his ability to be calm; he cannot wait. He wants to dosomething or say something now, anything, or make a decision,without being calm about it.
If someone says to you, "I lack the virtue of patience," say tohim, "Then you also lack the virtue of calmness," because theyboth go together.
7.
Give your body rest, don't exhaust it. The nerves of a
person who is in a state of exhaustion have little tolerance, sothat it is easy for him to lose his tranquillity and behave angrilyor nervously for the most trivial of reasons. So do not enterinto sharp discussions if you are tired.
8. Take advantage of the fasting periods to practise beingtranquil. The Bible says: " Consecrate a fast, Call a sacredassembly". (Joel 2:15) Remember that the Lord Jesus spent 40days fasting on the mountain peacefully. (Matt. 4) Ourproblem, however, is that although we have many fasts, we aresurrounded by noise and bustle on all sides and so do not derivethe full benefit intended from the fast!
999. Avoid stimulants as much as you can and things that upsetyou. If you lose your composure or are attacked by a lack ofcalmness, look to see whether the reasons are inside you oroutside, and avoid the situations which give rise to such a state,especially in your dealings with others. As one of the Fathersput it: "Don't have anything to do with a person through whomthe enemy fights you". Steer clear of sharp discussions, obeyingthe words of the wise man: "Make no friendship with an angryman, And with a furious man do not go. Lest you learn hisways And set a snare for your soul." (Prov. 22:24-25).
Also avoid noisy places and reading things, or listening to newswhich can upset or annoy you and make you lose your peace ofmind.
10.
Don't suppose that other people are perfect or ideal.
Don't expect too much from them. If others do wrong, don't beupset. People are like that; they can be good or bad. Don'timagine that you are dealing with angels and saints, but withordinary human beings. It is no good to let their mistakestowards us make us upset.
11.
Do not reply to anyone while you are angry, but wait
until you have calmed yourself down, then finish theconversation, or if you cannot postpone it, then at least be silentand say to yourself, "It's not good for me to talk with him whileI am not calm".
12. Do not resort to drugs to obtain calmness, such astranquillisers, sleeping pills, alcohol or narcotics, because they
100will all mislead you, without solving your troubles. Try to solveyour problems inside yourself by practical solutions and spiritualmeans. Know well that a person who gets into the habit oftaking tranquillisers becomes addicted to them and they do himno good. In fact he is forced to take more and more and wakesup from them only to find himself just as tired as before butwithout a solution!
13.
Also, do not search for calmness by escapism or
introversion. Do not imagine that by keeping to yourself andescaping that you will become calm. No, not at all; that is anunhealthy kind of calmness. Inside yourself you will be far fromcalm, and your problems will still be far from solved.
If you have a problem at home, do not imagine that the solutionto the problem is to escape from the house to a cafe, club orbar, for example. The problem will still be there to face youwhen you get back, because it needs a practical solution.
14.
Avoid using rudeness or force of any kind. Do not reply
to rudeness with rudeness. This is not the spiritual way and theBible says: "Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil withgood." (Rom. 12:21)
15. If problems become complicated, and you cannot find asolution, and you feel that your mind is unable to think in theface of these problems, don't lose your calm. Try to seekadvice. Perhaps you will find something in the advice that willcalm you and give you peace. It may give you a fresh, new ideathat may lead to the solution to the difficulty, and which willmake you feel that a door has opened before you.
10116.
The ascetic spirit gives peace in the matters where the
person loses his peace of mind through the pressure of desiresupon him and the frustration he feels because of not being ableto achieve them. If you are really convinced of the transientnature of the world you will become calm.
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